Day 10 - What's in the Bible

Today's reading: Exodus 37:25-Leviticus 7:38

What's in today's reading: Wow, this stuff is really kind of boring, can't it just say "yadda yadda yadda" instead? And what's with all the blood? GROSS!

Today the people of Israel are cleaning up their act and finally getting things together. As directed by God, we see them building the things for the tabernacle and then getting down to the business of following God.

And then there are rules, lots of rules, regarding offering.

And here's a word we haven't discussed yet: sin. We first saw the word sin way back in Genesis chapter 4. God says to Cain "sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it." The Hebrew word for sin is hatah (and it's various forms), literally it means "miss the mark", like an archer shooting an arrow and missing his target. The target, in this case, is the new law that has been given to Moses.

All kinds of offerings. And lots of animals. Lots of blood. Lots of killing. Why so much killing? Well, we know that this practice started, or at least was first recorded, in Genesis, right where we are introduced to the word sin. Cain and Abel make offerings to God, Cain of the "fruit of the ground" and Abel from his flock. Some say the practice is from God making clothes of skins for Adam and Eve, and that kind of makes sense - animals sacrificed to cover their sin, but we aren't specifically told why this practice is put into effect. But it is an important part of lives of the people of Israel from this time forward.